The Building Tradesman Newspaper

Friday, August 23, 2013

By Marty Mulcahy, Editor

Michigan’s right-to-work law does apply to about 30,000 state employees,
according to a state Court of Appeals ruling released Aug. 15.

After the state’s right-to-work laws (Public Acts 348 and 349) went into
effect in March, unions for those state workers appealed, claiming that only the
Michigan Civil Service Commission is constitutionally bound to handle all
matters regarding state employment. A 2-1 majority of the Court of Appeals
disagreed, effectively finding that the Michigan Legislature, which adopted the
RTW law, has the ultimate authority over employee contracts.

The majority opinions were made by Judges Henry William Saad and Pat
Donofrio, both appointees of Republican governors. They ruled the four-member
Civil Service Commission is “unaccountable” in their ability to "strip this
power away from the people,” and eliminating the people's “collective voice on a
matter of constitutional importance.”

Dissenting Judge Elizabeth Gleicher, a Granholm appointee, said the ruling
“strips the CSC of its regulatory supremacy.”

The ruling will likely be
appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court. If it stands, the state’s government’s
30,000-or-so civil service employees could opt out of paying dues when their
contract expires at the end of the year, yet still enjoy the benefits of their
union contract.